OCBC bets big on China's Great Bay Area development

Singaporean bank OCBC views China’s Guangdong-HK-Macau Great Bay Area as a strategic platform for strong business growth in the future, and said it will ride on the wave of the region’s development.

The lender said it will invest S$200 million (US$148.18 million) in people and technology there by 2023, and they aim to achieve S$1 billion in profit from the area during the same period.

Thanks to strong government support, the ongoing internationalization of the yuan as well as rising connectivity and flows, the area is expected to achieve sustained long-term development, according to OCBC.

The bank said that business potential for financial institutions in terms of lending and fee income is tremendous, and they are well-positioned to capture the trend in this fast-growing area.

In 2017, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang announced a plan for the development of a city cluster in the Guangdong-HK-Macau Great Bay Area, with the aim of creating the world’s largest bay area in terms of gross domestic product by 2030.

As one of Asia’s most dynamic economic regions, the Great Bay Area is a leading growth engine for China. Although the area covers less than 1 percent of the country’s land area and its population is less than 5 percent of the total, it contributed 12 percent of the nation’s GDP in 2017.